House.... or no House

Okay, so here's the low down.  We had an inspection on the house that we had finally gotten a contract agreement on and things turned out bad.  There were leaky ceilings everywhere and this and that needed to be done and we were only half way through the inspection at the time.  All the immediate needs of the house added up to about $10K and we were just not ready to front that type of money at first.  The rest of the little things needing to be done on the house was another $10K about.  I told Brian that I'm totally up for fixing up the house as we go, over a period of 2-4 years, but right at the beginning, we just couldn't handle all that.  So that house was history.  

Still house hungry, and not the slight bit deterred by our less than stellar first attempt, I set out on Friday with two kids in tow to view 20 more homes, narrowing it to my 5 top favorites by the end of the day.  The kids were really good and yes it was a LONG day, but we made it to the end.  Brian joined us at about 5 pm and we looked at my favorites and decided on a beautiful home not far from our first attempt choice.  It's a 5 bed - 3 bath split level home, foreclosure, but it's in really good shape.  We did a little mini inspection of our own (since after seeing the first one we kinda knew some things to look for) and came to the conclusion that this home is in great shape!  I'm totally excited and I think that this is the house that will go through without a hitch.  The other home was a warm up, but this one's a finisher.  :) So, that is the update on the housing front.  

P.S. Ian is practically completely potty trained and I love it!  He's so excited to be in big boy undies and he's so good about it!  It's amazing what little ones are capable of!  :)

Awe...

I'm suddenly excited for Ian's new stage in life.  He's still the rambunctious and crazy little boy we all know and love, but there are a few new and great things I love about this crazy little munchkin that I love so dearly. 

1st) If we tell him to do something, nicely of course, the first time he'll ignore us, the second time we get the sigh and "okay, mommy/daddy" from him.  Too cute!! 

2nd) As much as I was dreading potty training, it's really not half bad.  I know that now that I've said that, something awful will undoubtedly happen, but let's just knock on wood and hope things continue to go as great as they're going.  He loves going potty on the big boy's toilet and getting treats and he hasn't had an accident in a day or two.  It's great!  He loves his new underwear too and doesn't want to get Thomas the Train dirty, so it helps.  So to those of you who have had a rough time training your kiddos,  I'm sorry.  :)

 3rd)  I love how he has to explain everything to me.  "Mommy, ........ (foreign language talk)...... (15 minutes later)....  Okay mommy."  It's great to hear him trying to explain things to me and getting so excited about it all.  What a little cutie!  He really just warms my hear.  I love this kid! 

Dinner for the Dog

Brian has been really busy lately, but whether he's busy or not, life has to go on normally for my kids and their schedule.  So I was preparing dinner last night, Chicken Pillows, and it was taking me a century.  Kenya was very unhappy and kept crying at my legs, holding on for dear life.  Ian kept scream that he had to go potty, and of course each time he would scream I would have to run in and help him.  So I'd gotten the chicken cooked, the biscuits made, and dinner in the oven

time it took: 90 minutes

time it should have taken:  40 minutes

But hey, who cares how long it took, it was done and it looked great and yummy.  Brian and just, literally just, walked in the door and I was pulling the Chicken Pillows out of the oven.  Ian again scream "I need to go potty!" and I asked Brian to assist him.  I pulled the food out of the oven and was leaning over to set them on the counter when I tripped and dumped the entire main course of dinner all over the side of the cabinets and the floor crushing every yummy pillow.  It was a nightmare.  Needless to say, I was so tired, hormonal, and frustrated that I burst into tears.  Brian came to my rescue and thankfully was able to salvage most of dinner before the dog got to it and cleaned everything up.  It was INSANE!!

Let's go Potty!

So yesterday we started potty training Ian.  He just wouldn't keep his diaper on so I had no choice, but it's going good so far.  (Knock on wood, let's not jinx anything :))  So, he's been running around the house 'all-natural' and last night all of a sudden he screams out "I need to go potty!"  Of course, this had to be in the middle of making dinner and my hands were covered in dough.  I immediately started shouting excited words to him and told him to run and go potty.  I ran in there and we waited for a couple of minutes and I figured nothing was going to happen, but then... 'tinkle, tinkle, tinkle'.... he went potty in the toilet.  I know, lots of stupid little words, but I was SOOOOOOO very excited that he did it!  So we are pushing forward with hope and excitement.  Maybe this won't be as scary as I thought it would be. 

A Whole New World... Scary

It would be completely false if I didn't say that I'm scared out of my mind for these upcoming events in my kids lives.  Ian is now officially registered for a preschool class in the fall.  I got a good recommendation for a school from my friend and after some research we registered him this morning.  To be completely honest, I'm torn.  I want my little boy to keep being my baby boy, but it's just not gonna happen. I also want him to get some structure with this school and I'm excited to have some quality one-on-one time with Kenya.  But all of this is happening so fast.  I didn't think time would fly by so fast. 

So over the next 6 months we will be focusing on a little more structured time of our own (we're gonna get together with some friends and their kids for a mini-preschool), potty training (my dreaded nightmare - I'm SO scared of this), and hopefully moving into our new home.  It'll be crazy.  

Hey Banky, Banky...

So we're still waiting to hear back from the bank on the house that we're hoping to buy.  They just seem to be taking their good old time deciding if they want to sell it to us or not.  I know that's just how these things go, but I get antsy nonetheless.  But hopefully we'll hear some information this week.  Keep your fingers crossed. 

Another Cute Venture

I finished working on another outfit for Kenya.  I'm actually considering selling some of my stuff online at an Etsy store, I just haven't gotten there quite yet.  Anywho, so here's the finished product. 

Winter is FAR from over

So yeah, winter...still kicking.  I'm not sure that I like it all that much though.  On second thought, I really dislike it.  I'm ready for Spring, not summer, but spring.  (Summer around here is a major bummer unlike most places I've lived where you can't wait until summer is in full swing.)  The reports came in the other day that we'd get a snow storm this weekend.  On Friday after noon it started and it snowed, and snowed, and snowed all afternoon, evening and maybe even early into the Saturday morning.  Nevertheless, I was pretty adamant that Brian not go driving anywhere either Friday evening or Saturday morning.  (People in Georgia aren't really sure what to do when snow and ice hit.)  So here are some fun filled pictures of the snow. 

Comet really had a lot of fun playing in the snow.  He kept balling it up with his nose and biting it.  Too funny!

 

Been Busy

Okay, so it's been crazy the last couple of weeks... thus the lack of blogging. So the run down is:  

A couple of weeks ago we got a pretty good snow storm.  Yeah, you heard right, Georgia got snow!  It was crazy! People were sliding everywhere, lots of accidents, and actually snow on the ground for a few days.  Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.  

So for those few days we kept inside and enjoyed the comfort of a warm home.  I also had time to create two really cute articles of clothing for Kenya.  (Well, I'm biased cause I made them, but I think their cute. :)) 

I don't have a cute shirt to match this skirt yet, but that is my next project.  It was fun to make these and ruffles seem to be my new favorite thing.  They really turned out nice. 

Oh, yeah, so we've gone looking for a house.  The whole "gotta get out west" thing has really just been me pushing a hoping but it just keeps falling through.  I'm done trying to push what I want to happen and I'm gonna settle our family down for little bit longer than the year that we seem to make a habit of.  So, we had a great number of house to choose from and found a great 3 bed 2 1/2 bath that we are waiting on a reply from the bank for.  We put in an offer and hopefully the bank will accept.  It's a foreclosure, but it's been gutted and remodeled on the inside; new carpets, clean and painted walls and in great shape.  It has the master on the main, 2 beds upstairs and a half basement.  It's great and it's near our good friends.  In fact, it's just 2 houses down from a great couple in our ward, so we're very hopeful and happy with our choice.  Like any house, we have our ideas to make it even greater, but it's great the way it is too.

Brian has also started school and is taking two classes.  One of the classes he is taking is particularly challenging and he spends about 3 hours a night locked in the computer room studying.  I feel for him at times, especially considering I've taken a look at his homework and couldn't even begin to explain what any of it means.  :) 

So, I've been totally lost in a series of books my sister sent home with me from my trip to Utah.  It's called the Mortal Instrument Series by Cassandra Clare and I love them!  I can just get lost in the world the author has created and I love it! 

So, that is what has been going on. I've felt like pulling my hair a few times in the last few weeks, but I'm surviving the chaos well.  Ian is becoming more independent and it's rough, but it's good.   The only times I really don't like his independence is days like last Monday when I found both him and Kenya stripped from the waist down in their room and instead of taking a nap Kenya was covered in pooh, but hey, it's all part of being a mom.  Right?